European Cuckoo Cuculus canorus

European Cuckoos are more often seen than heard. When you do see them they can often be identified by their long pointed wings which they have a habit of drooping below their tail. If you see them it is often because they are being mobbed by other birds. Their flight is oddly droopy too, with the wings never lifted above horizontal. They can look remarkably like falcons. They are migratory, arriving in April and departing in August or September. They can be found on farms, heathland, wetlands and in woods.

Male in a walnut tree in a garden in Beaulieu lès Loches.

Most are grey with horizontally stripey barred fronts, but rusty red coloured females are not uncommon. It's the males that deliver the characteristic 'cuck-oo' call, sometimes for lengthy periods of time.

The species is famously a brood parasite, laying its eggs in the nests of other species and leaving them to raise the young. Reed Warblers are the most commonly targeted species, but Dunnocks are used in woodland habitats and Meadow Pipits in open grassland. In all there are about 100 species which have been recorded as having been used as foster parents by European Cuckoos.